On
August 2nd A Train Coming Up From Bloemfontein Was Derailed By
Sarel Theron And His Gang Some Miles South Of Kroonstad.
Thirty-Five Trucks Of Stores Were Burned, And Six Of The Passengers
(Unarmed Convalescent Soldiers) Were Killed Or Wounded.
A body of
mounted infantry followed up the Boers, who numbered eighty, and
succeeded in killing and wounding several of them.
On July 21st the Boers made a determined attack upon the railhead
at a point thirteen miles east of Heidelberg, where over a hundred
Royal Engineers were engaged upon a bridge. They were protected by
three hundred Dublin Fusiliers under Major English. For some hours
the little party was hard pressed by the burghers, who had two
field-pieces and a pom-pom. They could make no impression, however,
upon the steady Irish infantry, and after some hours the arrival of
General Hart with reinforcements scattered the assailants, who
succeeded in getting their guns away in safety.
At the beginning of August it must be confessed that the general
situation in the Transvaal was not reassuring. Springs near
Johannesburg had in some inexplicable way, without fighting, fallen
into the hands of the enemy. Klerksdorp, an important place in the
south-west, had also been reoccupied, and a handful of men who
garrisoned it had been made prisoners without resistance.
Rustenburg was about to be abandoned, and the British were known to
be falling back from Zeerust and Otto's Hoop, concentrating upon
Mafeking. The sequel proved however, that there was no cause for
uneasiness in all this. Lord Roberts was concentrating his strength
upon those objects which were vital, and letting the others drift
for a time. At present the two obviously important things were to
hunt down De Wet and to scatter the main Boer army under Botha. The
latter enterprise must wait upon the former, so for a fortnight all
operations were in abeyance while the flying columns of the British
endeavoured to run down their extremely active and energetic
antagonist.
At the end of July De Wet had taken refuge in some exceedingly
difficult country near Reitzburg, seven miles south of the Vaal
River. The operations were proceeding vigorously at that time
against the main army at Fouriesberg, and sufficient troops could
not be spared to attack him, but he was closely observed by
Kitchener and Broadwood with a force of cavalry and mounted
infantry. With the surrender of Prinsloo a large army was
disengaged, and it was obvious that if De Wet remained where he was
he must soon be surrounded. On the other hand, there was no place
of refuge to the south of him. With great audacity he determined to
make a dash for the Transvaal, in the hope of joining hands with De
la Rey's force, or else of making his way across the north of
Pretoria, and so reaching Botha's army. President Steyn went with
him, and a most singular experience it must have been for him to be
harried like a mad dog through the country in which he had once
been an honoured guest.
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